Gesture, Thought and Cinema circa 1900

Distributed for Amsterdam University Press

Cloth $91.50ISBN: 9789089641410
Published
July 2010
For sale only in the United States, its dependencies, the Philippines, and Canada

Paper $43.95ISBN: 9789089641403
Published
November 2011
For sale only in the United States, its dependencies, the Philippines, and Canada

In this multidisciplinary approach Pasi Väliaho draws from science and philosophy to offer a compelling study of how the medium of film has shaped our understanding of ourselves and the world around us. Väliaho examines key films from the early twentieth century, tracing the role that various arrangements of movement have played in the development of corporeality, perception, and modes of thought in cinematic modernity.

“A commanding and consummate study of art, philosophy, the human sciences, physics, and biology in the matrix of cinema at the turn of the twentieth century. Blending contemporary theory with close readings of the foundational writings of modernity, Väliaho shows how the autonomy of the movie-machine shapes the ways we believe we think and live today. It will be a point of reference for every student of cinema, consciousness, and perception.”

Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Rhythm

Gesture and Thought

Art, Science, Philosophy

1 Modulation: On Cinematic Gestures

Nervous Gestures

Detached Heads

Non-Human Observers

Penetrating the Nervous Apparatus

2 Experimental Life: The Biopolitical Context

Test Subject

Bare Life

Hysteria

Neuromimesis and Mutism

3 Umwelt: Automatism and Affectivity

Organ Projection

Automatism

Vitality Affects

The Open

4 Paradox-Image: Mapping the Unconscious

White Screen

Ruptures in Vision

Writing Pad

m & n

5 Differential Image: Abyss of Time

The Bridge

Schein

Imposition and Gramma

Lightning Image

6 Virtual Image: Cinema and Intuition

Cinematographical Mechanism

Indivisible Interval

Memory and Mirror

Continuum

Intuition

Conclusion

Notes

Bibliography

Index of Names

Index of Film Titles

Index of Subjects

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